and she reads

I had tried and failed in the past to read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Since then I've read some books of his essays and really enjoyed his writing. So, I thought, why not give it another try. It's a huge book (1104 pages total), really very very large, but I thought, hey, I've read big books before. I love big books. This will be a challenge but I am "a reader" and I will read this book.

But.... I failed. I mean, I could have persevered for the next month that it would have taken me to get through it but I really read for enjoyment and I was spending more time trying to figure out if I even like the book than I was reading the book. I found myself not reading anything because I would have to read this book. Around pg. 100 I started getting interested but around pg. 200 I realized I was not interested enough. Sad.

On the other hand, I loved this book and zoomed through it in a weekend. Granted, it was a very lazy weekend. Yay, for post-apocalyptic novels. I just love that genre for some reason. Anyway, this was quite good. Its sequel of sorts to her earlier novel Oryx and Crake which I wish I had reread first. I love her inventiveness about what the future will bring. Very dystopian.

So, why is Margaret Atwood not labeled sci-fi? Or only sometimes? In my library's catalog, Oryx and Crake is her only book labeled sci-fi and then only 2 of 3 copies are. One is in regular fiction. So why is this sequel not sci-fi and why isn't Handmaid's Tale or the Blind Assassin? I think it's because she is "literary". Sci-fi just can not be classy. I wonder if it has to do with gender as well. Women don't read sci-fi/fantasy. Women do read Margaret Atwood. Therefore Margaret Atwood can not be sci-fi?

Combining my children's books for this post, I also recently read The Graveyard Book. Loved it. I thought it was interesting how sophisticated the concepts and vocabulary were in this novel. I understand why it is shelved mainly in our teen section even tho I read it for my children's materials class. Basically it was the story of a boy growing up in a graveyard while the man who killed his family hunts him down. Needs to have a sequel and needs to be a movie. But please, no 3D, I am so tired of 3D.